To ride dressage is to dance with your horse, equal partners in the delicate and sometimes difficult work of creating harmony and beauty.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

A differential diagnosis

The test for the virus linked to Equine Multinodular Pulmonary Fibrosis came back negative (hurray!), so Inflammatory Airway Disease (IAD) it is. Rick is studying up on it, since the differentiation between it and heaves is new to him. He's talking about emptying the barn and pressure-washing it and fixing the leaks in the roof in order to reduce the dust and mold spores that could be aggravating the condition (another hurray if he DOES it!). I am going to look into a hay steamer, although that's probably beyond our budget. Lance is still perky; hope is still perching.

4 comments:

Hurray for a clear diagnosis. That mold can get into the feed and hay. Any chance you can store it separately? Or get a goat :) My goats are bellwethers (pun intended) for any hay that has the least little thing wrong with it. They refuse to eat musty and dusty hay. I've had hay that the horses think is fine and the goats turn up their noses. When I give the hay a good once-over and sniff, I realize that the goats are right.